2016 – New England

3rd Oct 2016

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Day 13 – Berkshire Botanical Gardens and Stockbridge

Today we visited the centre of Lee to take some pictures of the main church in the town – the First Congregational Church. The church dates from 1858 and has the tallest wooden framed steeple in New England at a height of 195ft.

We then spent the rest of the morning at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens, which are located near Stockbridge and cover an area of 24 acres. The entrance building has the look of a large private house rather than a commercial garden.

Scattered throughout the gardens are numerous wooden buildings which very much add some interest to the gardens.

Even the toolshed presented some interesting composition opportunities, photographed through a rustic tunnel.

We particularly liked the way that some of the buildings had been left to weather down, giving them some lovely textures and making them feel very much a part of the gardens rather than merely functional buildings.

Another feature that we liked was a wishing tree, where people had hung small notes with their wishes on a tree. This was something we had not seen before, and reading some of the wishes was quite poignant.

Given that it was into October, a lot of the summer plants were past their best flowering, however there was still some colour to be found.

Surprisingly a good spit for colour was the side of the toolshed.

After all that walking around, it was time for a sit down.

Stockbridge and the Devonfield Inn

In the afternoon we visited Stockbridge and took a short uphill woodland walk to reach a viewing platform known as Laura’s Tower which gives extensive views over the Berkshires area of Massachusetts, and north to Mt Greylock.  The round walk from Stockbridge is about 1,5 miles.

We then visited Laurel Lake close to Lee. This is a 120 acre lake surrounded by some attractive wooded areas. Although appearing natural, the lake was dammed in the late 19th Century to supply water to a local paper mill.

Finally we returned to the Devonshire Inn, and took some pictures in its extensive gardens.

Once again, we found an interesting pumpkin display at the inn, ready for Halloween.